(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems for contacting matter such as ionic material with a fluid or matter contained in the fluid. This invention further relates to desalinating sea water.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Before our invention sea water desalination was performed by placing sea water in contact with resins in a fixed or floating bed. The most common apparatus filtered or injected the sea water through the fixed or floating bed. The resins had to be periodically replenished or rejuvenated which meant a halting of processing and substitution of fresh resins for the exhausted ones.
Another disadvantage of such prior systems was that relatively large quantities of the ionic resins employed to remove the sodium, chlorine and other elements from the sea water were required. A further disadvantage was that because the contact ratio of the resin to the sea water was relatively low, the resins were used inefficiently.
Similar problems existed with respect to rejuvenating the exhausted resins. Large quantities of power or expensive chemicals were required to restore the resins to their former "regenerated" cationic or anionic state.
Workers outside the desalination art have disclosed using particles or matter physically distinct from the fluid therein. However, the use of such vortices before our invention involved establishing them within separate tanks and exchanging fluid between tanks with appropriate pumping arrangements. The perimeters of the vortices were not in fluid contact and, therefore, intercellular or intervortex diffusion did not occur through a fluid boundary between vortices.
We were aware of the following references prior to filing this application:
Johnson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,458
Stoddard, U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,910
Mackrle et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,815,750
Mackrle et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,144
Schoenrock, U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,113